of New York, is making 400 yards of woven goods per day, and M. Givenaud over 300. Dexter, Lambert & Co., at Paterson, N. J., make 60,000 to 75,000 yards of dress trimmings per month, and during the past spring season, manufactured 12,000 dozen yards of bullion trimmings. Hamil & Booth's Passaic Mill, beside making trams and organzines, is employed in the manufacture of dress goods. Nearly all the Paterson mills are engaged in this specialty, the Dole Company having introduced a large number of improved American looms; and the Murray mill, which was burned in May, but will be rebuilt, will be employed in weaving broad goods of net warps and "spun" fillings. American dyers are succeeding in producing as fine shades of color as the French. Claude Greppo, at Paterson, with thirty-five dyers, some of them from France, is daily turning out 350 pounds of dyed silk, the colors of which are equal to any producd at Lyons or Saint Etienne. The American velvet mill started at Paterson a few years ago failed. New York City contains probably fifty establishments for various grades of the manufacture; many of them are small. At Schenectady, Troy, and Yonkers, are also several mills. Paterson is the headquarters of the trade and contains fifteen factories. The operatives are mostly children of mechanics, the majority of them girls, who earn from $4 to $7 per week. In the trimming and weaving mills, skilled operatives brought from Lyons receive as much as $35 a week for piece work during the spring season, and girls trained to the labor can earn $9 and $10 a week. Some of the mills in Connecticut and Hoboken employ operatives, as in Europe, to take the materials and weave the goods at home."

THE ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF SILK.

The annual production of raw silk is estimated at $214,000,000, of which America is credited with a mere trifle at present; but twenty years will probably make a great change. Eighty years ago the value of the silk goods manufactured annually in France was $5,000,000; now it is $150,000,000. The silk industry has not made so much progress in Germany, Spain, or Italy, yet it has also made great advances in those countries, and it promises to make great advances here.

This manufacture is so great and profitable, and is extending so rapidly, that the people of the United States should make their best efforts to get possession of a part of it.

SILK CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA.

The breeding of the silk-worm in California has been commenced so extensively, and so profitably, and there is so much probability of its rapid extension, that it is already regarded as one of the most promising industries and important resources of the State. It has thus become an interesting branch of our national agriculture, and a proper subject for study by those who desire to keep pace with the material progress of the country. It pays well, and carries with it many branches of manufactures which require costly machinery, high mechanical skill, and artistic labor, all of which will contribute to enrich the nation. The business is capable of great development. The market has never yet been overstocked, nor is it likely that it ever will be, so long as it is fashionable to wear the textile fabrics now in use. The best raw silk sells readily for its weight in silver, and France obtains seven times as much money from her cocooneries and silk factories as Mexico does from her mines.

INTRODUCTION INTO CALIFORNIA.

Among the pioneer settlers of California was Louis Prevost, an enthusiastic Frenchman, who had bred the silk-worm in his native country. Soon after establishing himself in the valley of Santa Clara, he became convinced that the climate and country were peculiarly adapted to the production of silk; so he imported mulberry seed, made a nursery, and set out some of the trees in a plantation, but had much difficulty in getting live eggs. He succeeded in interesting Henry Hentsch, a Swiss banker, in his schemes; and that gentleman, in 1857, imported a lot of eggs, all of which were dead, or were hatched on the voyage, and the worms died before reaching California. Another shipment the next year shared the same fate. In the third shipment a few eggs arrived in good order, and, in 1860, Mr. Prevost had the delight of seeing himself in possession of California cocoons, which, in size, luster, color, and every desirable quality, were far superior to the average of the European cocoons. Although he had not given half so much time to the worms as is given in France, they were all very healthy, and he did not hesitate to advise all his friends to go into the silk business as a source of profit. Unfortunately, after having failed for several years in his attempts to get live eggs, he had dug up most of his mulberry trees, so that he was not prepared to feed many worms, and, besides, he had not enough money or the credit to justify him in devoting himself entirely to an occupation which would not give him a return for several years. His progress was, therefore, slow. In the fall of 1860 he had 500 eggs; he began the year 1862, with 2,000; 1863, with 3,000; 1864, with about the same number, and 1865, with 100,000.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THIS ENTERPRISE IN CALIFORNIA.

Within the last three years the increase has been great, more than 3,000,000 worms having been bred in 1868. At the State fair, held at Sacramento in September last, twenty-eight persons exhibited cocoons, and the places represented were San José, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Hornitos, San Gabriel, Los Angeles, Nevada, Placerville, and Portland, Oregon. The cocoons were of several varieties, including the new French, old French, white Japanese, green Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, yellow Portuguese, white Portuguese, yellow Mountain, Valreas, white Oak, and wild California-varieties most of which are of no practical value, the old French being equal in the healthiness of the worms, and superior in the quantity and quality of the silk fiber, to any other. Among the exhibitors were J. N. Hoag, of Yolo County, three miles from Sacramento, who bred 1,000,000 worms, in 1868; W. M. Haynie, of Sacramento, who bred 800,000; Louis Prevost, of San José, who bred 500,000; G. E. Goux, and A. Packard, of Santa Barbara, 100,000 each; D. F. Hall, of San Gabriel, 200,000; and Mr. Garey, of Los Angeles, 20,000. The gentleman last named expects to feed 100,000 in 1869; and many others will double and treble their production. The main obstacle to progress, at present, is the scarcity of mulberry trees; but plants grow so rapidly in California that, when the entire agricultural population is satisfied that the breeding of the silk-worm will pay better than anything else, the production of cocoons can be raised to a very large figure in a few years. It is probable, from arrangements and preparations that are now being made, and from opinions expressed by silkgrowers, that the number of cocoons will double annually, for several

years to come. This would give 6,000,000, in 1869; 12,000,000, in 1870; and 24,000,000, in 1871. It is supposed that there will be enough mul berry trees to feed so many, but this may be an erroneous supposition. Hitherto the business has been profitable, or at least since 1865. The eggs have commanded a ready sale, at $8 or $10 per ounce, until last summer, when the price fell to $4; now $12 are demanded, but this is too much. When the Pacific railroad is done, offering speedy conveyance, in a cold climate, to Europe, the price will probably be not less than $6. Heretofore, the shipment of eggs to Europe has been accompanied by much loss, because many were hatched or killed by the heat of the tropics. Even at $4 per ounce, however, the business will be profitable.

THE BOMBYX IN CALIFORNIA.

Under the most favorable circumstances, in California the Bombyx mori requires about fifty-five days to complete the course of its existence; four days in the egg; thirty-five in the caterpillar; twelve in the chrysalis; and four in the moth form. The circumstances favorable to the development of the animal are a dry, warm, and quiet atmosphere in all the stages, and an abundance of wholesome food in addition, in the caterpillar stage; for, in that condition it takes all its nourishment. Neither the chrysalis nor the moth ever eats anything.

The life of the caterpillar is divided into four periods by moltings, at each of which it eats nothing for a day, and creeps out of its skin, coming out with a new dress. The first molting occurs on the fifth day, the second on the eighth, the third on the thirteenth, and the fourth on the twenty-second.

The eggs may be kept for a year in a cold place, and the caterpillar may live for four or five months, if the weather is cool and the food scanty or of poor quality. In Hindostan, silk-worms have been known to run through the circle of life in forty days, and in France the average period is about sixty-five days. The time spent in the chrysalis is from twelve to fourteen days in California; from eighteen to twenty in Hin dostan, and from twenty to twenty-five in France.

YIELD PER ACRE.

In

An acre should support from 700 to 1,000 mulberry-trees, and, when four years old, they should produce 5,000 pounds of leaves to the acre; that is, 5,000 pounds suitable for feeding, and, during feeding time, without injury to the tree. Those leaves should feed at least 140,000 worms, which will produce 70,000 female moths, and these will lay 300 eggs each, or 21,000,000 in all. After deducting 5,000,000 for possible loss, we have 16,000,000 eggs, or 400 ounces for sale, or $1,600 per acre. France the expense of breeding 75,000 worms, including the cost of the eggs, 86, the leaves, $28, the labor of two persons for forty days, $64, fire, $4, and incidental expenses, $10, amounts to $112. Mr. Prevost says that one person can do all the work in California for 75,000 worms, and the expense to the farmer who has his own eggs and mulberry plantation should not exceed $1 per ounce of eggs. At $4 per ounce an acre would thus yield $1,200 net. At $2 per ounce, the common price in France for French eggs, the net yield would be $400 per acre. Skillful French silk-growers expect to get $800 from an acre of mulberry plantation. We have followed the best authorities in stating that 5,000 pounds of leaves will feed 140,000 worms, but some writers say 5,000

pounds to 70,000 worms; and their statements must not be left out of calculations. Let us now consider the profit that may be derived from the sale of the cocoons. The acre will produce 140,000 worms, or, allowing 35,000 for loss, 105,000 cocoons, which will weigh 420 pounds, and be worth $3 per pound, or $1,260 in all. At present prices the production of the eggs is the more profitable occupation for Californians, but they should enter the business prepared for the worst contingency within the range of reasonable probability.

THE SILK-WORM DISEASE.

It is not likely, however, that the price of California eggs will fall below $5 per ounce. Europe is no longer able to supply itself. The worms in France, Italy, Turkey, and all the countries within a thousand miles of the Mediterranean, are diseased. Neither preventive nor remedy has been found. Thiers said, in a speech in the Corps Legislatif, that the annual loss to France by the disease is $20,000,000.

The Revue Universelle de Sériculture says the production of cocoons in France has fallen, on account of the malady, from 25,000,000 to 4,000,000 kilograms.* This pest has raged for twelve years, and has been growing worse and worse. The ablest chemists and entomologists have failed to discover the cause or the cure. If Europe could not import eggs, there would be imminent danger that her silk production would come to an end; and serious fears have been expressed that the disease will spread to other countries where worms are bred, and that the silk manufacture will become one of the lost or abandoned arts.

JAPANESE EGGS.

At present, France and Italy rely mainly for their supply of healthy eggs on Japan. Every year about fifty Italians, and half as many Frenchmen, go to Yokohama to purchase eggs, and pay from 81 50 to 86 per ounce for them; and the total amount of their purchases, in 1867, was 800,000 ounces, averaging $2 50 per ounce; in 1868 the quantity was twice as large, and the average price per ounce about the same. Yokohama is the main market for the sale of Bombyx eggs to Europeans, but something is also done at Osaka and Hakodadi. Kioto is the chief center of the Japanese silk trade, which has received a great stimulus from foreign intercourse, the price of silk having doubled, and the production increased twenty-five per cent. within the last ten years. For a time the eggs were sent from Japan by way of the Isthmus of Suez, but, since the establishment of the China mail steamer line, they have commenced to come by way of San Francisco and Panama; and, so soon as the Pacific railroad is done, they will cross the continent, so as not to leave the temperate zone, the loss being great in proportion to the heat and length of time spent in the tropics.

TEMPERATURE IN CALIFORNIA.

California must compete with Japan, and can do it successfully. It is admitted that the California cocoons are superior to the Japanese; they are worth one hundred and fifty per cent. more per pound; the eggs are more healthy, therefore they will command a higher price. The climate is more favorable, the production larger, and land cheaper.

*A kilogram is equal to 2.204737 pounds avoirdupois.

Climate is a matter of vast importance to the silk-worm, and in no country where much silk is grown is it so favorable as in California. The first point is temperature. The worm needs a warmth of 85° for hatching, 750 while feeding, and 65° while spinning. These temperatures are not indispensable, but they are the best. The following table shows the temperature of every month, at various points in the United States, and at certain cities in silk districts of the old world:

Canton and Milan are the two chief centers of silk production mentioned in the foregoing table, and they differ considerably in the matter of temperature. The former has a winter averaging 44° and a summer of 80°; while the latter has a winter of 360, and a summer of 720. The summer should not be below 65°; and, therefore, San Francisco, Humboldt Bay, and Monterey are not adapted to the Bombyx. All of California, however, except a strip within fifteen miles of the ocean, from Point Conception to Cape Mendocino, and forty miles wide north of Mendocino, and the mountains more than three thousand feet above the sea, is suitable for the silk-worm. The temperature, though not warm enough in the open air at some places, becomes so in a garret upon which the rays of the sun beat during the day. The worms thrive best, other things being equal, in a place where the thermometer reaches 65° in May, and stands about 750 in June and July, as it does at Los Angeles, and in nearly all parts of the Sacramento Basin.

MOISTURE IN CALIFORNIA.

The next point, in connection with climate, is the amount of rain-fall